Mariners swept again, still have more questions than answers

Ichiro and the rest of the Mariners outfielders were chasing fly balls all night during Thursday’s loss to Tampa Bay. (Elaine Thompson/AP)

Face or gut?

That’s the latest question facing the floundering Mariners these days.

The whole Safeco scene stayed consistent Thursday night. There was a new dose of Milton Bradley news. A small crowd pulled up hoods and folded their arms in the cold, then left seats early. The Mariners didn’t hit a lick.

Add it together and the hometown nine are losers of six in a row and 10 of the last 12. Thursday night’s 8-0 loss to Tampa Bay saw to that.

Prior to the game, the Rays showed what winning feels like. Tampa Bay started and finished the night with the Major League’s best record. That explains why first-base coach George Hendrick was playing around with fans while Tampa Bay took infield practice. The mood was light enough that 54-year-old bullpen coach Bobby Ramos was shaking his moneymaker behind home plate and manager Joe Maddon joked with Evan Longoria during batting practice.

Not so for the moribund Mariners. The clubhouse was quiet, well, except for Ken Griffey Jr.’s space near the entrance. Not many were around.

Maybe they knew another night of no breaks and few hits was coming. Tampa Bay hit bleeders off the ends of bats — like Gabe Kapler’s second inning single that drove in the game’s first run — that landed between sprinting Seattle fielders.

The Mariners (11-17) would smash a pitch, like Franklin Gutierrez did in the third inning with Chone Figgins on first, and it would turn into a 390-foot out thanks to the sultry speed of center fielder B.J. Upton.

Tampa Bay’s roster full of athletes zoomed around the base paths. For the second consecutive night, Carl Crawford turned a definite single into a blazing double. The hit pushed in Tampa’s second run. Meanwhile, the Mariners were converging on foul pops up the third-base line, tumbling to the ground and not catching them.

The fielders were not the only ones stumbling. Ryan Rowland-Smith gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings. Crisp line drives were whacked around the park by menacing Evan Longoria, Crawford and Willy Aybar.

Rowland-Smith fooled few during his truncated outing. It dropped the man labeled as the Mariners’ No. 3 starter at the beginning of the season to 0-2 with a 6.21 ERA. He needs to be fixed.

“I pitched well against these guys before,” Rowland-Smith said. “It’s nothing mechanical, it’s all psychological. It seems this point of the year, it seems like the last nine years I played professional baseball, it gets to this point for me. There are things that you worry about that are not in your control.

“You start to second-guess yourself and doubt your ability and you take a look back at what you’ve done in the past and know the results and numbers and stats, and what’s happening out on the field, I’m better than that.

“I’m a better pitcher than what is going on right now.”

Crawford capped the damage with a smash over left-center field fence in the eighth inning off Ian Snell. Snell threw 3 1/3, allowing just the two-run homer though he was wild throughout.

Like several fly balls on Thursday night, everything appears to be just out of reach for the club. The offseason plan was to build an offense that could pressure the starting pitcher. Take pitches, zip around the bases, cause a frenzy. Four hits and two walks won’t lead to any of that.

“It’s not one or two guys that are going to carry this club,” Wakamatsu said. “We have to start having better at-bats throughout. We’re averaging, if we’re lucky right now, one guy on base an inning.”

The good news? The Mariners’ next opponent, the Angels, have lost seven consecutive games themselves. Somebody has to win on Friday.

“It’s hard to watch the same game,” Wakamatsu said. “I know the fans are getting tired of it. We’re getting tired of it in here. But we’re going to continue to believe in what we can do and continue to work.”